A podcast all about Japanese cartoons and comics as discussed by three self-proclaimed experts in the world of anime and manga! Plus anime news / reviews, coverage of classic anime, hentai / yaoi, and much, much more. Updated every week. We hope.

Anime World Order Show # 20 – Mechanist Doctrine and Dudettes Being Rudettes

This week, it’s all anime reviews as Clarissa talks about Ouran High School Host Club, Gerald reviews the limited edition release of Patlabor the Movie, and all will receive the anime blessing…and the cleansing. But will they lift up their arms and praise Daryl for reviewing Karas, as the vapors make them pure? NNNAYYYY, they will WAIL and SCREAM, most ungrateful…!

Introduction (0:00 – 28:35)
“Reliance upon others is weakness for the strong, but strength for the weak. Wisdom and balance lie in knowing your own nature over time.” — Chronicle of the Metal Age

For all the time we spend answering emails, we barely seem to get through that many. Curse our insistence on being thorough! We continue our Full Metal Panic discussion from last week and lament the fact that pretty much nobody has given us questions to ask Monkey Punch at Metrocon next week. Plus we talk about Galaxy Angel, The Melancholy of Harumi Suzumiya, what books and authors are worth looking into if you’re interested in anime from an academic standpoint, and of course, we complain about our archnemesis, the dark spectre of moe.

Big Big Truck Productions – why, for a minute there I was wondering if EK was going to become EW, cause that’d just be GROSS!

Let’s News! (28:36 – 37:10)
“The man who learns only what others know is as ignorant as if he learns nothing. The treasures of knowledge are the most rare, and guarded most harshly.” — Chronicle of the First Age

Gerald retracts his previous reporting that the PC games for Bible Black and Discipline are coming out in English, but gets his spirits back up by mentioning how exactly zero people wrote it to defend Trinity Blood. Media Blasters cancels their release of the Riki-Oh anime, prompting Daryl to express his desire for Viz to release the mindblowing manga once they’re done releasing Tough. Also, there’s a new hero in town and her name is Mimei Sakamoto. A shame she lacks the street cred of say, The Nish.

Review – Karas: The Prophecy (37:10 – 59:23)
“He poured his children’s eyes from glass and from steel wrought their hands that none could escape His judgement.” — The New Scripture of the Master Builder

When Daryl was new-forged, Karas took him away from the foundry mother and said “Thou art the child of my endeavors; follow me and thou shalt inherit the Earth.” Discover the links and similarities between Karas, tokusatsu, Final Fantasy Advent Children, and the secret Mechanist plot hatching within Soulforge Cathedral! Fine, fine, so “Karras” isn’t quite the same as “Karas,” but Daryl never asks himself “who’s going to get this?” Daryl just says to himself “the right people will get this.” Just like TV’s Frank.

Anime On DVD’s review of Karas that Gerald insisted on bringing up during this segment, then forgot to do so, just like with those F encodes by Michael Wishlow

Promo: R5 Central (59:23 – 1:00:09)
Mike Dent’s foray to Anime Central has resulted in a convention report that’s going to span three parts! Could he be searching for THE TRUTH as well, perhaps?

Often Overlooked: Patlabor the Movie, Limited Edition (1:00:09 – 1:15:48)
“To manipulate a man is a careful project. Too light a hand, and he follows his own whim; too heavy a hand and he will turn on you.” — Chronicle of the Metal Age

Back in our early shows we discussed this upcoming release and told people to check it out once it came out. Well, now that it’s come out, we’ll say it once more, only this time Gerald’s going to tell everyone exactly what you get for the extremely hefty price tag. Hmm, on second thought, most people should probably just check out the much more affordable “movie only” edition.

Review – Ouran High School Host Club (1:15:48 – 1:26:29)
“Bricky roads they trappers grass, stoney walls they trappers wind, iron stove it trappers fire. Trappers is we by the works of hands, and forgets us we were ever free…” –Inked grass scroll

Apparently things that only just came out on DVD are still considered “old releases” by the exacting standards of the Internet, so in an effort to not be labeled as the “we only talk about old stuff at the exclusion of everything else” podcast and be relabeled as the “we mostly talk about old stuff because we’re too lazy to watch through our backlog” podcast, Clarissa’s giving us our thoughts on this anime that’s all about a girl pretending to be a dude that’s pretending to be rude so all the ladies will swoon. Watch your step, there’s references to 80s sitcoms and teen comedies underfoot.

Viz Shojo Beat site entry for Ouran – our review is actually for the anime, but you can get the manga officially courtesy of Viz [Daryl: With whatever funds are left over after you buy their releases of Phoenix, Golgo 13, and Tough of course!]

Oh, just in case anyone’s curious. There are about three or four groups subbing this series right now; Clarissa’s watching Solar’s myself, and they seem fine.

Promo: Otaku Generation (1:26:29 – 1:26:43)
This week, the Podcast of Otaku Generation is rocking the dragon as they interview the hosts of Daizenshuu Ex, a podcast devoted to Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and all the merchandise and such associated with Akira Toriyama’s megahit about people standing around threatening to fight each other. All this, plus Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots!

Closing (1:26:43 – 1:30:36)
“When we looked at the relics of the precursors, we saw the height civilization can attain. When we looked at their ruins, we marked the danger of that height.” — Keeper Annals

Next week is an episode requiring years of preparation on the parts of us all, to the interest of well, probably nobody. Daryl is going to finally review the Often Overlooked OAV series Giant Robo, Gerald will review the old super robot series Combattler V which he and Clarissa have spent the last half year or so watching, and Clarissa is going to talk all about Saint Seiya. Sure, nobody’s going to listen since nobody cares about any of these shows, but let it not be said that our anime podcast is just like all the rest! Otherwise Daryl will see to it that you’re locked up within Shalebridge Cradle.

According to the wikipedia page on Yoshiyuki Tomino, he was the producer on Voltres V and was not involved in Combattler V. Voltres V is part of Tadao Nagahama’s “Robot Romance Trilogy” along with Combattler V and Daimos, hence the confusion.

As a fan of Tomino’s work (and as someone who watched nine episodes of Combattler V before giving up), the Combattler V statement confused me. I DEMAND ANSWERS!

I gotta say, guys, I’m mildly horrified that Daryl, Gerrald, and Clarissa all weighed in favorably on the side Fumoffu in this podcast.

Granted, the original FMP! is only fair-to-middling, but Fumoffu is outright wretched. The show relies on Stooge-esque slapstick and tries to find humor in a numerous of situations involving damsels in distress being threatened with sexual assault.

Am I the only one who noticed this? Why does everyone on the Internet damn FMP!, yet praise Fumoffu, when Fumoffu has this skin-crawlingly creepy subtext?

Is it just me, or does the sound clip you played from Karas sound just like Glomer from the old Punky Brewster cartoon? Don’t ask why I know what that sounds like. It was on in the background. I never watched it for entertainment value. Really.

I absolutely agree with the portrayal of most Azumanga Daioh fans. It took me over a year to watch that show because the people that hyped it either sounded like idiots or outright batshit nuts. When I actually sat down and watched I realized it was quite a good show (and is now one of my favorites), but it’s most vocal fans are downright annoying.

Not really. Yes, a section of the fans are annoying, but that happens with ANYTHING. Full Metal Alchemist, for example is awful for its fanbase. In my student flat at the moment who spent her summer writing crazy FMA slashfics, but I still watch the series. Hell, it works especially well for Lost.I wouldnt have found out about either Galaxy Angel or Azu if it wasnt for the vocal, batshit insane cat-ears wearing buttertroll that ran the Universities Anime society.You dont need to discard a series due to the fanbase, just ignore the extreme elements. Sometimes its actually nice to live in England, although releases are slower, more expensive and further spaced, we are spared some of the more.. uh.. “Extreme” elements of the fandom.